Image forming apparatus
AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAtsuyuki Katoh, Hiroshi Ishii
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An isolating wall is provided for isolating, from a space outside the isolation wall, a space including: a photosensitive drum; a developing unit; a charging device; a transfer device; and a fixing device. With this configuration, the space in which powder toner (toner which is not fixed on a recording material by the fixing device) is present is isolated from the space outside the isolation wall. Thus, in an image forming apparatus using powder developer, this configuration makes it possible to (i) prevent the floating toner from going out of the image forming apparatus, or (ii) prevent the floating toner from deteriorating a function of the image forming apparatus.
Claims14
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a photoreceptor for forming an electrostatic latent image thereon;
- a developing device for visualizing, by using powder developer, the electrostatic latent image formed on the photoreceptor;
- a transfer device for transferring, onto a recording material, an image visualized by the developing device;
- a fixing device for fixing the powder developer on the recording material by heating and melting the powder developer;
- and
- an isolating member for isolating a first space from a second space, the first space being a space in which the powder developer which is not yet fixed on the recording material is present, and the second space being a space outside the isolating member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.